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Francois D'Haene: How To Have a Long Career
Published 6 months ago • 6 min read
Rachel Entrekin joins Rest Day Live tonight!
Rest Day Live is back tonight with special guest, Rachel Entrekin! We'll kick off the show with a post-Chianti interview with Rachel before Tim Tollefson and I hit some recent news topics.
Francois D'Haene on the dangers of elongated trail running seasons
Last week, all-time great Francois D'Haene posted his thoughts on the pressures modern professional athletes face, especially around early season long-course racing. The post created much response, including comments from many current pros navigating these pressures in real time. Francois has been among the most successful and consistent athletes in the world for 20 years, so his perspective on this subject is supported by proven longevity. We'd all be wise to listen and consider the truth in his argument.
Are we burning out by racing Ultras as early as winter? 🧐
A 125 km ultra in early March, or 130 km in mid-March… 🥵 As of today, the snow is only slowly melting in the mountains—the very place where the races we dream of take place in the summer. It’s only in a few weeks’ time that we’ll truly be able to train there to feel comfortable and perform well in a few months. Of course, it’s exciting and intoxicating to see these battles and the media hype surrounding these early-season races at the end of winter. Our eyes are already turned toward spring and summer. But what we don’t see is all the preparation required behind the scenes to be ready to cover such distances at full speed this early in the year...
I find myself questioning this less and less seasonal approach to our sport, year after year. Is it possible to sustain this over the long term? Can the body and the mental commitment it demands truly handle it?
As trail running transforms from hobbyist passion to professional industry, the racing season has slowly drifted away from nature's calendar. Early season races like Black Canyon, Tarawera, Transgrancanaria, and Chianti are no longer opportunities for post-winter hibernation rust busters - they are full throttle competitions with huge stakes attached.
Of course, the enhanced spectacle is incredibly positive for the trail running industry and for outfits like Freetrail. As evidenced by the growing engagement on live broadcasts, there seems to be a bottomless appetite from fans to see the sport's best athletes compete year round. Sponsors and athletes together recognize this growing appetite and are compelled to position themselves to ride the wave of momentum our sport is enjoying globally. But what's good for the sport as a whole might not be good for individual athletes looking to find their place and build long-term careers.
As a fan and contemporary of Francois, I always admired how he managed his career with restraint, focus, and pragmatism - splitting his years into defined skimo and trail running seasons. With trail running becoming more commercial, pro athletes are specializing more, often at the expense of other sporting pursuits. In order to enhance earning power and media exposure, they're tempted to race more frequently and over a longer seasonal duration than generations past. As Francois notes, these temptations didn't exist to the same degree during his formative years and may contribute to shorter racing careers for modern pros.
Shouldn’t March rhyme with shorter races instead? I remember the 2010 season. Back then, the Trail du Ventoux was a 42 km at the end of March, where you could prepare without rushing things too much during the winter. I remember evenings after the Pierra Menta where, with zero running kilometers clocked all winter, I’d head off to training camp with Kilian and the Salomon Team wondering if I still knew how to run. And in the end, those 2010 and 2011 seasons went pretty well! Having to train abroad in the middle of winter, chaining long runs on a treadmill, or doing hypoxia sessions with poles on an indoor incline... is this really what we want for the future of our sport, and is it truly the best way to last?
Interestingly, Jeff Browning used similar words of caution on the podcast recently, hypothesizing that the increased intensity of the sport might lead to premature burnout for high-level athletes. With Jeff and Francois raising the same red flag, I'd hope the current generation will pause to reflect on what made them durably great over multi-decade careers.
In considering that question myself, two words come to mind: focus and love. Both Jeff and Francois always had laser-focus on their biggest goals. Francois's style was to build towards one or two major competitive objectives that were often counter-balanced with less performance-based projects. This stands in contrast to seasons consisting of many races across several months, each with roughly the same competitive significance. The lesson: pick fewer goals and chase them harder.
To the love point, I'll close with a friendly exchange between Francois and Francesco Puppi in the comment section of his post:
The goal of this post was to reflect on finding a practice that is enjoyable, repeatable, and sustainable. More importantly, it’s about questioning how each athlete can find pleasure in their training to ensure the longest career possible.
At the end of the day, the only path to consistent high-performance is to consistently enjoy what we do. A lesson that applies just as much to everyday life as it does to the trail.
I'm excited to explore this further with Tim Tollefson on tonight's show!
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+ Rich Roll joins TrailCon as keynote speaker on Monday June 22nd in Palisades Tahoe. An endurance athlete, author, and podcaster, Rich is one of the greatest interviewers and thought leaders of our time. His best-selling book Finding Ultra was one of my earliest touch points with endurance sport and remains one of my favorites. We're thrilled to welcome him to TrailCon. To be part of it yourself, go secure your free registration now.
+ From Hong Kong Trail Racing: Former The North Face athlete Jiasheng Shen has joined Salomon, per a post on the brand's RedNote page. Shen has been one of China's breakout stars over the last decade, notching three top-five performances at CCC, two top tens at Western States, an eighth-place finish at UTMB, and a sixth-place finish at OCC. This year, Shen finished sixth at the Tarawera 102k and ran 2:27:51 at the Wuxi Marathon. This news comes shortly after the announcement of Miao Yao's departure from the brand.
+ Gorge Waterfalls is next week, April 10th-12th in Cascade Locks, OR. We're excited to put on sold out races for 1300+ runners across 30k, 50k, & 100k courses alongside our great partners at All Conditions Gear. We'll be playing fantasy and Trailgating all week, so stay tuned for updates.
+ Speaking of All Conditions Gear, I recently noticed a fun article online - The Mountain That Made ACG. It's an absolute must-read that combines two of my favorite things: mountaineering history and product development. Without spoiling the punch line, the ACG Ultrafly was in some ways born in the Himalayas, on the flanks of K2, in 1978. So rad.
+ Subscribe to Fantasy Events Calendar - You can now subscribe to an iCalendar (ICS) feed of upcoming fantasy events. On desktop, use the "Subscribe to Calendar" button on the events page to share the feed to your operating system's calendar app. You can also copy the feed URL directly to import it into your calendar app of choice (e.g., Google Calendar).
Courtney is BACK, Chianti Recap, + The Big Alta Final Thoughts
On last week's Rest Day Live we unpacked a very busy race weekend! Golden Tickets at Chianti, fast times at Chuckanut, and wild racing at The Big Alta were on the menu with Corrine Malcolm and Tim Tollefson co-hosting.
Aaron Lutze welcomed Jonathan Levitt back to the pod last week to discuss the evolution of brands, athletes, and Creators
If there's one thing for certain, it's that nothing ever stays the same - how are brands, athletes, and creators dealing with an ever-changing landscape?
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